With friends like these

Moreover, because America is never more segregated than it is on Sundays, Wright's ranting is going to hit white Americans with particular force. Every big city has one or more black pastors like Wright who mix left-wing conspiracy theories, phony Afro-centricism, remnant black power rhetoric and a rag bag of vulgar Third World sympathies in an angry, frequently race-baiting social gospel. Preached in a style that leaves little room for understatement, it's alarming stuff when you hear it for the first time. And because the U.S. news media don't take anybody's religion very seriously or report on it in much depth, this will be many white Americans' first exposure to this inflammatory -- albeit tiny -- tendency within black churches.

Then there's the fact that, while Hagee and Ferraro were bit players in their campaigns, Wright hasn't been a tangential figure in Obama's life. The Illinois senator sought the church out and made a personal profession of faith in response to Wright's preaching. Obama has said he consults Wright before making important political decisions.

The Illinois senator is nothing if not an adroit campaigner, and he clearly understood that an Internet firestorm required an Internet backfire. So late Friday he published a blog on the Huffingtonpost that called Wright's remarks "inflammatory" and "appalling." He went on to write: "I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit." Obama also said he had decided to remain a member of Trinity because Wright has retired.

Once again, Obama has demonstrated how well he understands that much of his campaign's appeal is built on an ability to speak about race and social solidarity in a new way, to make change and hope again coincidental in the American political psyche. He knows that nobody will follow you into a new era if they suspect you're carrying the reeking baggage of the old.

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timothy.rutten@latimes.com